I have a problem. I'm using Canon's HG10 HD AVCHD video camera. I import my movies into final cut express, edit my movie and render it. After rendering it (regardless of the setting I set it at) as h.264,mpeg-4,appleintermediate codec, ect,etc....it doesn' come out as clear as the way it looks when I play insode fincal cut. The colors aren;t as rich, the footage itself isn;t as clear. What should the settings be? I want this to come out as good as possible when I burn it onto a DVD. Can soenone advise the proper settings in final cut and when I'm ready to export my movie as...?

When going to DVD, you should not be fiddling with codecs. Export as Quicktime Movie and the video will remain in DV format. Put that QuickTime into your DVD mastering software and it will look it's best.

If you want to play it in Quicktime, you may need to play with the quality bits using Quicktime Pro. High Quality defaults to ON. I like to also set the Interlace bit. YMMV.

FOr the web, apply a gamma filter to make it darker when you export. That will address the washed out look.

I have been producing for general consumption on the web with a GL-2. But I am now shooting with a XHa1 for a wider variety of customers with a variety of needs. What input settings (such as HDV Apple intermediate codec 1080i60) in FCE and export settings should I use to give a customer the best high quality video for institutional promotions.What I have tried gives me ghosting and lots of little horizontal bar (like scan lines) with nice contrast, or soft flat images.
Lew
I have DV Kitchen for compression and conversions later.

When you say "institutional promotions" do you mean DVDs? Playback from a computer?

Once your edit is finished, use this procedure for the best quality export:

How do I export a high quality movie? at DVcreators.net (http://www.dvcreators.net/how-do-i-export-a-high-quality-movie/)

Then, if you're making a DVD, you can just drag that file into iDVD.

The "lots of little horizontal bar (like scan lines)" you mention is interlacing, which is not visible on a TV.

More info on interlacing:

Let’s talk about mice teeth at DVcreators.net (http://www.dvcreators.net/interlacing/)

If you're providing web video, or video for a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM to be played back on a computer, the QuickSpecs settings in DV Kitchen will automatically deinterlace.